Magnetic vortices on closely packed spherically curved surfaces

We investigate the change of magnetic vortex states driven by curvature. The equilibrium state and magnetization reversal of soft magnetic permalloy (Py, Ni₈₀Fe₂₀) caps on self-assembled spherical particles with diameters of 100, 330, and 800 nm are investigated, revealing the vortex ground state for individual caps and closely packed cap arrays. The magnetic coupling between vortices is substantially reduced due to the shape of the cap as apparent in a much weaker dependence of the magnetization reversal process on the separation distance. Interestingly, the remaining coupling is still sufficiently large to introduce chirality frustrated vortex states in closely packed cap arrays.